An Introduction to: How is Airbnb in Rio de Janeiro?
Hi! I’m Douglas and I’m a Data Science enthusiast trying to learn everything I think I need to become a Data Scientist.
This right here is something I believe I should have started doing ever since I started studying Data: start a project of my own, without direct guidance from one course or another. Since Airbnb is one of the companies with the strongest Data Science teams, I couldn’t fit anything more than that.
So, as you should have read in my About Me post, I’m Brazilian. And, as you should know at this point in life, Rio de Janeiro is in Brazil. I actually live in Salvador, Bahia, here in Brazil (yes, the city of Carnaval) and I manage an apartment on Airbnb. I’ve said that to make clear that what I really wanted was to analyze Airbnb data on Salvador to get some insights on how to manage my apartment. Sadly, the only Brazilian city Airbnb provides the datasets of is Rio. That should mean, more than just to justify my choice of city, I intend to make this Analysis as modular and generic as possible in a way that, when they eventually release Salvador data, I can just plug such data on what I have already built.
About the Data
The dataset I’m using to start this project is the proprietary but open data from Airbnb retrieved on their data website Inside Airbnb. I have had thoughts on getting some other data like security data from the government (all openly available, of course), but that shall come — or not — as a small plus in the near future.
About the Tools
The tools I’m referring to are the languages and software I’m going to use.
I intend to use everything I learn about Data Analysis with this project. As of the moment when I’m writing this article I already have some reasonable knowledge of Python and have done a course on Google Sheets. I’m in the middle of a Power BI Introduction course as well. So that means I want to try every single thing I can in a project of my own interest.
About the Methodology
I want to do this project in really small steps, as my priority is to keep doing courses and learning new stuff. That means I should post 1–2 minute long readings to report on every single small step I take towards the end of this project. I plan to title them with something like Some title on what I’ve done — Airbnb#0XX, where I have a title that briefly explains what I have done and I have a number indicating how many articles and steps I have taken. Important note: all of those posts should be strictly in English.
Furthermore, I shall have to make some bigger posts with more important and complete reports at a few landmarks of the project. Those posts should be name differently, something like How is Airbnb in Rio de Janeiro — Some Report, it isn’t that much different but it shall be enough to show the difference. Important note: I want to do such reports both in English and in Portuguese, so my Brazilian folks can understand it clearly.
It is very important for me to point out that I’m a very indecisive person. That means what I’m saying here might change along the way. If that is the case, I hope to come back and correct this plan accordingly.
About my Hopes
As I always say, even if this project journaling doesn’t help you at all, it will most definitely help me. That said, I hope this also gives some people inspiration, focus and helps someone figure out some steps they should take (or not, I’m also learning) when analysing data. If you want do follow my work more closely, every single think I do shall be posted on my Github account here. So, let’s get to data! See you soon.
